Troll Patrol

Hello MP amigos. I want to throw out some thoughts on trolling. We see more beginners joining our community on MP every day. Many of them have simple questions and requests that appear to be trolling and the troll patrol is quick to respond and cry troll.This is not a welcome response to new people who genuinely want to get involved. Or they aren't sure if the youtube video they saw is reliable information.

Troll-ing is an important part of Mountain Project. As long as there are forums there will be trolling. It is humorous, can generate some good discussion, and can remind people that they are mortal. But, before we cry troll we should look at a few aspects of the post. Trolling typically involves getting a reaction out of someone - and noob trolls usually try to elicit anger. If it is just a question that seems really dumb there is a good chance it isn't a troll. Especially if they follow up thanking people or asking more questions. A troll's follow up post will usually attempt to fan the flames and fuel the fire so to speak.Error on the side of not a troll, despite how absurd the comment/question is.

If you want to drop the hammer on someone save it for an older user. There are plenty of opinions and personalities on here that can take it. Noob's first posts shouldn't be subjected to MP troll patrol. 

Nice Gimmick.

This thread is clearly a troll. I'm sad I didn't think of it first.

Yeah, snarky responses to new users kind of violate rule one. It's why i don't keep tic marks or post routes anymore. Mostly i just come here to shop and add the occasional f.u. post. Be nice to the noobs. The trolls will reveal themselves in due time. 

Funny the OP has a great point, I have the thought the same thing, and it's sad the first handful of responses are what they are.  When I pop on here I try and make it a point to share something useful.  We have all seen the threads where someone new asks a question and they get skewered -- it's not very helpful and just promotes bad mojo.  Just be nice I like to say... 

user id - easy to tell me STFU and die when you are anonymous. No way you would say that to my face. Coward. 

Vas - you are the troll lord. But I like your material and I think it generates good discussion. 

Johnny and Chris - agreed

Maybe newbies should lurk moar

Has someone seen my glasses? I left them at the crag.

In all seriousness I agree with the OP but people gotta learn to grow a thick skin for not only these forums but also for life. If it's a rude comment, ignore it and/or flag it and move on.

llanSan wrote:

Has someone seen my glasses? I left them at the crag.

No but I found a fingertip

Ok, so I've been wanting to get into SOLO climbing, and I've got a few solo TR setups I'd like you all to critique...

Said the guy who got caught trolling...

So in your world, an older user will troll from their established account instead of creating a new account to troll from in "gasp" their first post under that new account? (ok, ok, ok, we all know a proper troll will make a few posts here and there and then troll, but we'll ignore that for the sake of a snarky argument) 

The reality is that people don't attack a new posting member because they're asking a stupid question, hell, we egotistic types love answering the same question over and over if it makes us feel all smart and stuff, but it's the questions that show absolutely no ability to search for that info first that get under people's skin. And let's be serious, we are involved in a sport where the number one way to stay safe is to be self-reliant. For a newbie to just say "feed me info, i don't want to figure it out myself or show what I've found already" means that actually helping them would be hurting them because how are they going to learn to analyse information rather than simply blindly trusting information? Hell, that's why most of these threads will be a few posts with the answer and then a million posts of people attempting to explain every outlier situation where using the correct answer would be dangerous. We don't need to do this if the questioning climber is involved enough in their systems and understandings that these outlier situations would be easy enough to figure out. Even worse, it's actually these additional explanations that can get a new climber in trouble because they don't have the experience to discern when to use wat and tend to confuse what is for 90% of the time and what is for 1% of the time. 

TL:DR Answering easily researched noob questions that have been answered ad nauseum actually makes these new climbers counter-intuitively less safe. 

It's not our fault that new members literally follow the troll playbook in their posts and new trollers literally follow the new member playbook in their posts. 

Dustin B wrote:

Ok, so I'm going to get into SOLO LEAD climbing, and I've got a few SOLO TR setups I'm planning on using...

FIFY

kevin deweese wrote:

The reality is that people don't attack a new posting member because they're asking a stupid question, hell, we egotistic types love answering the same question over and over if it makes us feel all smart and stuff, but it's the questions that show absolutely no ability to search for that info first that get under people's skin. And let's be serious, we are involved in a sport where the number one way to stay safe is to be self-reliant.  

Nailed it. I'll spray about gear and shit all day long, because I enjoy spraying. However when someone comes on here and has clearly made ZERO attempt to do anything I get pissed. I'm not the google search box. Asking questions is great, asking to be spoon fed information is insulting to everyone else. It also shows that critical thought regarding what advice is given will not be used by the poster. 

If google was a guy...

Big B wrote:

No but I found a fingertip

That's funny right there! Greg, don't fall for the. trap! JB

Kevin, I 100% agree. I have fed my ego answering simple questions. And I agree about questions that should simply be googled. In that point the person should be trolled. I am basically stating that noobs exist and they will ask noob questions.I have seem some dick comments that are unnecessary and my little post isn't going to change much but maybe it can help. .

Fehim - I have trolled a few times, who hasn't? Two situations that were percieved as trolling but WERE NOT, were 1) Independence Monument thread, 2) Yosemite ninja thread. 

Anyways, where is the best place to camp at Joshua Tree??????????????????????

One of my points was also that there's literally no way to determine the difference between a clueless noob and a trolling climber. My philosophy is the the clueless noob is not a climber looking for answers, they're little babies who want to be spoon fed and thus can be dismissed. Once you've dismissed the clueless noob, you're only left with the trolling climber acting like the clueless noob. So play the first to point out the troll is the only option left. After all, the real new climbers that are truly engaged in their questions don't sound like trolls and won't be called out. 

But yes, we're climbers and thus we're dicks so it does help to every now and then  point it out to possibly remind one guy/gal to rein it in. So thanks for putting yourself out there to play that part!

kevin deweese wrote: 
So in your world, an older user will troll from their established account instead of creating a new account to troll from in "gasp" their first post under that new account? (ok, ok, ok, we all know a proper troll will make a few posts here and there and then troll, but we'll ignore that for the sake of a snarky argument) 

I wish I'd thought of opening a new account ! Doh! 

&

Kevin deweese also wrote:

One of my points was also that there's literally no way to determine the difference between a clueless noob and a trolling climber. My philosophy is the the clueless noob is not a climber looking for answers, they're little babies who want to be spoon fed and thus can be dismissed. Once you've dismissed the clueless noob, you're only left with the trolling climber acting like the clueless noob. So play the first to point out the troll is the only option left. After all, the real new climbers that are truly engaged in their questions don't sound like trolls and won't be called out. 

But yes, we're climbers and thus we're dicks so it does help to every now and then  point it out to possibly remind one guy/gal to rein it in. So thanks for putting yourself out there to play that part!

Argh, 

This thread needs pictures and it's the traverse ,

 I'm not sure what 'V' it is ,  oops.  ( Lou-louLemon w/uggs boots, butt shot, -photo removed) 

more than expected, , Hands and Feet,  Rugged foot wear required ."The Labyrinth" Trail, Lake Mohonk NY

wrong picture. .  .  .the obvious "V" of Yosemite Valley, catching a moon rise from low on a wall, with a full valley view, the HalfDome in a Recognized profile, ,( photo, removed)' Nope . .  that's a nice 'V' too 

but still not the Traverse. .  

There it is!.

Greetings from Small Rock Hell ! Where Trolls dwell. . . 1.  .   .   .   .